URBANIZATION AND CRIME: A STUDY OF GUWAHATI

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1 American International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Available online at ISSN (Print): , ISSN (Online): , ISSN (CD-ROM): AIJRHASS is a refereed, indexed, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary and open access journal published by International Association of Scientific Innovation and Research (IASIR), USA (An Association Unifying the Sciences, Engineering, and Applied Research) URBANIZATION AND CRIME: A STUDY OF GUWAHATI Minu Kumar*and Joyanta Borbora *Research Scholar, **Professor Department Sociology, Dibrugarh University Abstract: Urbanization as considered from the economic aspect, it is good as it facilitates achievement of economic of scale and thus promotes growth of industries and development in the economy. Moreover from social point of view urbanization encourage crimes as the rate of crime is higher in large cities and in urbanized areas. Several explanations have been provided on crime in the literature as well as many empirical studies. However in this paper determinants the link between urbanization and crime, because urbanization which in some way have contributed to the rise of crime rates in cities. In this present study, there is sincere hope to present a vivid, realistic and analytical discussion of essential facts that there are more crimes in cities comes to mind which is promptly being answered by that one can court many crime reports in cities as compared to rural area. So due to different causes, past few year the crime rate has increased within the sphere of urbanized areas which also focused in this study. On the other hand, present study is most significant,because from the foregoing literature on the urban crime, there has been gap in knowledge. In any existing situation demands a researcher to fulfill that gap? So crimes with reference to the city are significance to provide a sociological understanding of urban crimes and criminals, which exists in most of the crime in any urban setting. Keywords: Crime, Criminals, Urbanization. I. INTRODUCTION Crime is a complex social problem. Unlike the problem created by urban growth, international tensions and possible nuclear war, Crime has long been with human societies. Crime it is an act which the group regards as sufficiently manacing to its fundamental interest to justify formal reaction to restrain the violation(e.n.johnson).crime is a relative concept, its varies from society to society, country to country and also time to time in the same society. There is no society can free from the act of criminality. Therefore, it is an act or omission prohibited by law for the protection of public and made punishable by the state in a judicial proceeding in its own name (Marshall and Clark 1962) According to Durkheim (1947) crime is an act that offends certain very strong collective sentiments (Borbora 2007:1) Durkheim (1950) contends that crime. is present not only in majority of societies of one particular species but in all societies of all types. There is no society that is not confronted with the problem of criminality (Barbora 2007:2) The problem of crime is an anti-social behavior. A man in normal conditions generally does not commit crime. There are some factors such family background, socio-economic condition and social disorganization etc. which are responsible for involved a person became criminal. Criminal are the individuals that defined in the criminal code. According to the nature of crime against the persons includes such illegal acts as murder, assault, rape, crime against property includes burglary, larceny, forgery, automobile theft and crimes against public order consists of such behavior as prostitute gambling, drunkenness disturbing the peace and the use of narcotics(holt, Rinehart and Winston 1967) With the advancement of industrialization, urbanization, modernization, globalization crime is gradually rearing its ugly head all over the world. In recent years, crime has become democratic. It was formerly a phenomenon attributed primarily to poor people residing in lower socio economic areas. Crime is now recognized by most people as a moral corruption that is apt to and does infect all strata of society. Crime is present not only in the majority of societies of one particular species but in all societies of all types. There is no society that is not confronted with the problem of criminality. Therefore crime is a common and dangerous thing in our society. Specially criminal activities damage the basement of a country.crime which is varies from society to society in different period of time, but with instead crime has become an urban phenomenon, due to urbanization, growth of industry,migration,employment potential etc.people generally move from rural to urban areas and settled there, for better opportunities. But urbanization basically carries some material of this crime and as consequence crime AIJRHASS ; 2018, AIJRHASS All Rights Reserved Page 45

2 increasing in urban areas. So basically in urban areas such as city, town has given much opportunity and much facility to do crime. At present crime has speeded in rural area but here there is no the shed of urbanization. Urbanization is a process whereby population moves from rural to urban area, enabling cities and towns to grow. It can also be termed as the progressive increase of the number of people living in town s areas. So industrialization, specialization and economic development are considered as related to the theories of urbanization. A basic feature of urban is the shifting in employment from rural to urban or industrial sector. In other word, urbanization is an indicator of industrial development in the economy. Labour market pooling, trade of goods and services, knowledge spillover, high level of income and economic relations are the basic pillars of urbanization. This type of development is helpful for employment creation, poverty reduction and planned local business development in the urban regions. Theories suggest that urbanization good for promoting growth of industries and development in the economy. The other face of the urbanization many be the encouragement of crimes as well, since, crimes normally occur in large cities and in urbanized areas (Krivo and Peterson 1996). In rural areas, due to lower population density, criminal persons have less chance of hiding themselves because people know each other. The opposite is true for urban areas. The main facts of crimes in urban areas are the fewer chances of arrest and recognition (Glaosen and Sacerdote 1996). Therefore, it is argue that as urbanization increase so does crime (Galvin 2002; Gaviria 2002). Hence, one may argue that more urbanization is an indicator of higher crimes. On the other hand, due to social change that affect the concept of crime in many ways which can be through development is science, technology, through changes in Predominant moral and social philosophy, through changes in the structure of society, especially in its transition from a rural self contained and relatively sparsely populated to highly urbanized, industrialized pattern. II. Objectives The objectives of this paper will be to analyze the causes and effect of urbanization in relation to increasing crime. This study also analyzes the trend and patterns of crime in Guwahati (Kamrup Metro) city. III. Methodology The present study has been conducted through primary and secondary source like books, research papers, articles police records etc. Therefore, information regarding crime scenario of Guwahati was collected from district authorities (DC, ADC), Municipal Administration department (Chairman and Mayor), Police Administration (Commissioner SP, DSP, SI) for primary data and also the reported cases of crime has been collected from deficient records of police officers of Guwahati (Kamrup Metro). IV. Review of Literature Literature review is the mostly significant part of a research. Here, the researcher defined the connection between urban phenomenon and crime. Crime is largely an urban phenomenon but the specifically urban area dimensions of the social process that connected with crime have been seriously understand in much recent criminological work. Louis wirth (1938) in his classic article on urbanism took the three concepts of size, density heterogeneity as key features from which one could analyze social action and organization in cities. We viewed the close living together and working together of individuals who have no sentimental and emotional ties foster a spirit of competition aggrandizement and mutual exploitation. However Becker view on crime in urbanization (1968) over population is the main and important part of urban crime while 30%of the world population was living in urban areas in 1950, it was about 47 in the year 2000, his view lives us a clean conception that with the increase of populations, different crimes are also increased. We can realize that growth of population is a major cause of crime in urbanization on the other hand, clinard (1992; p.203) elaborated that view by arguing that there is more crime is density, populated areas than in scarcely populated rural areas because of urban characteristics such as mobility, impersonal relations, differential associations, limited participations in community organizations organized crime cultures and a criminal type in the life experience of offenders. However crime rates are not evenly distributed over geographical areas in urban settings. Some neighbourhoods are more corbelled by crime and even within neighbourhood there are considerable differences between areas as a result of subtle inter plays between physical characteristics and people s behaviours. The early Chicago seha of sociology stimulated the study of concentrations of crimes in cities al over the world (Park and Burgess 1967) introduced the idea that a city can be ecologically divided into concentric zones with varying crime rates. The highest crime rates were in the transitional zones surrounding business centres. ButGerban J.N. (2007), propounded that residents in the rural areas are less confronted with crime because of higher levels of social because of higher levels of social cohesion and informal social control and lower offender rates in a well-ordered physical surrounding criminal live more frequently in cities in which their crimes are concentrated in city centers and their surroundings. The greater the distance to the city centre, the less crime occurs. AIJRHASS ; 2018, AIJRHASS All Rights Reserved Page 46

3 V. Analysis In the last decade, the rapid growth of cities and exacerbated social problems has led to a great deal of inquiry on the extent to which the physical forms of cities can contribute towards achieving a gust and sustainable future. There are qualitative differences in the incidence of crime in areas of varying degree of urbanization. In this regard Durkheim was one of the first writers, to state clearly that urbanization inevitably results in a greater amount of crime and such a position as, in part been validated by later research which, however, has usually been restricted to one extreme of the continuum of urbanization namely, the great metropolitan areas. Crime, the term, through cannot be defined precisely and exhaustively has been known all the ages civilizations. Increases in crime during this period were believed by many to stem directly from the social changes brought about by the complexprocesses of urban industrial development. Among the determinants of crime were thought to be conditions of poverty, low levels of education, population s density and crowding urbanism and migration. Here, the researcher has been analyzing the causes and effect of urbanizations: i) Industrialization, it s a trend represent a shift from the old agricultural economics to novel nonagricultural economy. Industrialization has increased employment opportunities by giving people the chance to work in modern sectors in job categories that aids to stir economic developments. ii) Commercialization and trade play a way role in urbanization. The distribution of food and services and commercial transactions in the modern era has developed modern marketing institutions and exchange methods that have tremendously gives rise to the growth of towns and cities. iii) Social benefits and services; there are numerous social benefits attributed to the in the cities such as include better educational facilities, better living standards better sanitations and better recreation facilities and better social life in general on this account, more and more people are prompted to migrate into cities to obtain the nude variety of social benefits and services which are lenaviable in the rural areas. iv) Employment opportunities; in cities there are various job opportunities that continually draw people from the rural areas to seek better livelihood. Therefore, the majority of people frequently migrate into urban areas to access well paying jobs an urban areas have countess employment opportunities in all developmental sectors such as public health, education, transport, sports and recreation industries and business, enterprises. v) Modernization and change in the mode of living; modernization plays a very important role in the process of urbanization. As urban areas, become more technology sawy together with highly sophisticated communication medical facilities, dressing code, liberalization. In urban areas, people also embrace changes in the modes of living namely residential habits, attitudes, dressing, and belief. As a result people migrate to cities grow by absorbing the growing number of people day after day. vi) Rural urban transformation; as localities become more fruitful and prosperous due to the discovery of minerals, resource exploitation on agricultural activities cities start emerging as the rural areas transform to urbanism. On the other hand, urbanization effects have some positive as well as negative consequences. The positive implication of urbanization therefore includes creation of employment opportunities, technological and infrastructural advancement, improved transportation and communication, quality educational and medical facilities and improved standards of living. But urbanization also implication some negative consequences such as urbanization attracts people to cities which lead to population increase, with increase in the number of people living in urban centers, there is continued sacreity of house. This is due to insufficient expansion space for housing and public utilities, poverty, unemployment and costly building materials which can only be afforded by few individuals. However the problem of joblessness is higher in urban areas and it is even higher among the educated people. It is estimated that more than half of unemployment youth around the globe live in metropolitan cities. So the increasing relocation of people for rural areas to urban areas is the leading cause of urban unemployment on the other hand, due to urbanization the crimes normally occur in large cities and in urbanized areas. The main facts of crimes in urban areas are the less possibility of arrest and less probability of recognition and families are less intact in urban areas. In this present study is an attempt conduct a scientific and sociological research about urbanization and crime. In this regard, the study has conducted in Guwahati. Assam has the largest urban population of 4.3 million (census 2011) amongst the north eastern state. Guwahati has about 0.9 million urban populations, while the other large cities of the state are Nagaon (population 16,355), Dibrugarh (population 138,661) and Silchar (population 172,709). This indicates that other than the concentration of more than 25% urban population of Assam in Guwahati. Assam has a well distributed urban population cross the state. The state s level of urbanization is 14 percent in the census 2011, where is a 1.2 percentage point increase over the census 2001 urbanization level of 12.9 percent. Moreover, it is lower than the all India annual rate of urbanization which is 2.82 percent per annum in (population census of India 2011). As per the percentage of urban population to total population in census 2011, the districts of Assam are ranked such as AIJRHASS ; 2018, AIJRHASS All Rights Reserved Page 47

4 Rank in 2011 District Percentage 1 Kamrup Metropolitan Dima Hasao Jorhat Tinsukia Dibrugarh Cachar Bongaigaon Goalpara Nagaon KarbiAnglong Nalbari Dhubri Sivasagar Kamrup Golaghat Karimganj Sonitpur Lakhimpur Borpeta Morigaon Chirang Hailakandi Dhemaji Kokrajhar Darrang Udalguri Baksa 1.3 Source: (Provisional Population Totals, Paper 2, Vol. 2 of 2011 census) The above table reveals that in the different districts the urban population rate was also different. But among the district the highest urban population is Guwahati (82.9) and lowest in Baksa (1.3). However as a major urban population area; Guwahati (Kamrup Metro) the urban crime scenario as also significant Guwahati is the largest urban centre in Assam accounting for 23.8 percent urban population of the state. It is comparatively a new city in the country s urban landscape, but its significance lies in the fact that it is the leading urban centre of the entire northeastern region of the country. The city is receiving a large number of people who enter the lower circuit of job market and from the poor or deprived class of the city. As a result, the city has experienced a heavy influx of people from both the rural and urban areas. However, Guwahati in the last twenty five years has grown tremendously in all sectors due to rapid urbanization. It s a process of urbanization that an indicator of the socio-cultural environment degradation is the alarming rise of crimes. In the Guwahati (Kamrup Metro), as per crime reported ncrb.gov.in the 2013 there are 3310 cases has been reported in the city. In Guwahati, day by day number of cases was registered in the police stations; but the number of cases registered in Dispur and Paltanbazar Police Stations. However, there are different types of crime has reported such as theft, dacoity, robbery, cheating, murder, rape, kidnapping, domestic violence, cyber crime, downy death etc. But last few years a number of crimes against women has been increased in the city. Therefore it was necessary to understand the tread of crime in Guwahati (Kamrup Metro). According to the Police records (khatiyan) the reported cases were presented in the following manner, to know whether crime rate was increasing or decreasing. Table No. 01 Reporting crime of Guwahati city Year Reported cases Increasing/ Decreasing , , , , , So, the data in the above table no. 1 reveals that in every year the crime rate was increasing. In the year 2013 total 5,047 cases were reported and in i2017 it goes higher compared with previous years. The interesting facts revealed from the table that in the city year wise reported cases has been increased. AIJRHASS ; 2018, AIJRHASS All Rights Reserved Page 48

5 On the other hand, it was stated earlier that in the city, due to rapid urbanization, it impact positive as well as negative, the negative impact such as increased crime rate crime with urbanization should be showing highest degree of crime against women in the city. The alarming rise of crimes against women calls for a serious speeulaties for the development of the society. Crime against women comprises of 17%. Guwahati metropolitan records the highest number of total crimes. There are number of cases registered in different police stations in the metro city, but its rate highest in Jalukbari, Dispur, Paltanbazar, women police station (Panbazar). They are mostly reported cases against women such as kidnapping, rape, dowry, domestic violence, and as high illegal migrations for money women forcefully involve in prostitutions. So, in this regards the following table has been presented. Table No.02 Depicting to show the total crime and crime against women Year Total crime Crime against women (79%) (83%) (89%) (91%) (1035%) The table defined that there is a gradual growth of number of crimes committed against women in Guwahati. However, as compared with total of crime the maximum crime against women. So the numbers of crimes against women are high in those areas of the city which are thickly populated. Therefore, the above stated information swere critically analyses and was shared by the concerned persons engaged in the maintaining the statistical records of crime in Guwahati (metro) city. In this regard, in Guwahati, were urbanization brought industrial development and employment opportunities in the city. It is also known that most of the slums are found within the most urbanized areas and Guwahati is one of them. However, there are different factors of people involving into crime, and socio-economic factor one of them, this factor directly or indirectly involving people towards crime, such as the capitalist order in rewnewed form, which widens the gap between rich and the poor. For example alcohol consumption by the poor is often associated with their committing of some sort of crime; however, this is not the only factor contributing to the rising crimes in urban areas such as in Guwahati (Kamrup metro). VI. Conclusion From the above analysis, we can say that, as increasing urbanizations in the city, the population rate is also increasing as population has increased the number of problem have been occurred and increasing crime rate in urban area is one of the significant point of study. The impact of the process of urbanization on the reasons of crime is more widen as it promotes changes in social structure, promites culture conflict and a change in the space environment thereby it inducls an increasing number of criminals elements. Although the official data from diverse sources (primary and secondary sources) provides a scenario that how crime has been increased in the city. It is often seen that the crime rate published in newspaper exceeds the official tabulated data, as many crimes go unreported. However this official statistics cannot be denied as they very well depicts a distinct picture of different crime. VII. References Ahuja Ram (2000): Criminology: Rawat Publications. Becaris, M.C.B. (1967): An essay on crime and punishment, London. Gash B.N. (2006): Scientific Method and Social Research, sterling publishers private Limited, New Delhi. Sutherland EA, CressyDn (1969): Principal of Criminology 2 nd edition, India Reprint Times of Indian Press, Bombay. Tappan P. (1960): Crime, Justice and Correction New York, Mc Graw Hill Book Co. Wirts Louis, (1938), Urbanism as a Way of Life, the Americal Journal of Sociology. Darrow C, (1934) Crime its Causes and Punishment. Assam Police ( AIJRHASS ; 2018, AIJRHASS All Rights Reserved Page 49